Child of Light
by Eric Ashley
Summary: The Dwarf Ginarrbrik has found a book in the mines beneath the White Witch's castle. Jadis now plans to put in one more backup against the End of Winter. If she has too, she will destroy Narnia, like Charn, rather than give it up to the Lion, but this time by summoning an Old One from the Depths of Space. Xinthari, the Haunter of the Ring of Stone, hates the Child of Light.
1. Chapter 1

Child of Light

Escorted by Maugrim, the Great Wolf and Chief of the Queen's Secret Police, the dwarf came into the black ice floored throne room. In his horny hands, Ginarrbrik the Black Dwarf held a solid iron box, fastened with a cruel chain to his waist so that to steal it would require one to hack the crusty and vicious dwarf in two. Jadis, the White Witch, sat upon her throne of gold against the soaring white back wall of the room listening with feigned boredom to the tears and begging of two old Centaurs.

"Please, our boy, he's a good boy. He did not mean any harm. Just threw a snowball at your carriage..." The male Centaur, his back swayed from many years, and his beard, thin and gray clutched hands with his wife before the throne.

"And you's Majesty was not even in the carriage…."

"Sleigh, good filly, sleigh. Carriages have wheels, and as everyone knows, the Winter will never end, and so wheels are passe'. Hmm, I think I will make it a law that anyone who uses the word 'carriage' is ..." She glanced up and over at Maugrim.

"In need of a conversation, with me." He grinned, slinking along, and the Centaurs trembled as they turned to look behind them. In the blood and bone of Centaurs lay all the fear of the Horse of the Wolf, and all the fear of a Man of the Secret Police.

"Dismissed." She waved briskly, and the two looked at each other with despair. They had travelled days to rescue their colt from his stony fate in the Queen's courtyard, and to not be properly heard, was yet another blow. Still they rendered their obeisances, and left. The Queen eyed Maugrim, and he grumbled.

"It will do no good, your Majesty. The Centaurs will not lead me to their secret pastures."  
"Follow them, Maugrim. I wearied and broke their spirit, and now all you have to do is keep up with two old Centaurs in the Wood. Surely you can manage that."

Being careful not to snarl to the ice-cold beauty, Maugrim bowed, and went out, without hope.

When he left, the doors to the Throne Room of the White Witch slammed shut leaving her alone with Ginarrbrik who bowed.

"Good, little dwarf, what have you found for me?" She cooed, leaning forward, her hair unmoving, and he winced. With desire in his eyes, he glanced at her staff.

"Turkish Delight, well, you must really think you found something special to ask for this. Or is it that you saw the Edmund boy have some, and you want some as well?" There was playfulness and danger in her voice. Ginarrbrik just knelt, with the box in front of him, too weary of soul to even stand, as the chains weighed on him.

 _Sparkle_ , and a stalactite, small, a few inches long, changed, and fell into a bowl that had been sitting by the gold throne. She shoved it with her staff, flinging it to the dwarf who caught it with a frantic eagerness, gobbling down the candy. And the chains around his soul tightened just another notch as the Witch peered down from her great height with some small pleasure in his degradation.

"Well." She snapped, and the candy still sticking in his beard, he held up the box.

"Mistress, I've had some of those not turned to stone laboring in the mines beneath your palace. We've found things, strange things." He had cheer in his voice, and for a time the pain of the addiction was gone.

"I know." She frowned. "Oddments. A golden key, sized for a creature with three very long fingers; a scroll written in ones and zeroes; a strip of red fabric which no flame can touch, a sword made of diamonds. The last is of some use, but not much. I wonder why I let you do this." She paused, and murmured. 'the dreams, the dreams.'

"Majesty, Mistress, I found, in the Deepest, in a Void in which the workers would not even go, at pain of death, a book."

Jadis leaned forward, and gestured. Quickly, Ginarrbrik took a key from inside his stinking left boot, and opened the locks. He tried to hand out the book inside, but the Queen lunged forward off the throne, knocking him down. She took out the book with a look of triumph on her face.

"Now Aslan, now you will suffer." She hissed, wrapped in ecstasy as she hugged the black rock faced book to her bosom like a loved one, if she had ever had such. Cautiously, moving slowly, for in such moods, her Majesty was most fickle, the dwarf unlocked the rest of himself. Relieved she had not casually blasted him, he cleared his throat.

"Leave, Ginarrbrik." And as he walked back and away from her, she fixed him with a terrifying glare. "Don't tell anyone."

He bowed, and fled. Inside, the doors began to open, but she warded them shut with a wave and ice, and the servants knew it was One of Those Weeks.

The first thing she searched for was traps, and there were none. But all the same, the whole book was a trap. Her nose flared, like a huntress smelling prey and danger.

Tracing out the name in Viscokian, translated to Proto-Old Charnian, to Old Charnian, to Narnian which even Jadis now thought it rendered a title: _Thaft Which Wass Beffore._ In the Spellbook in Proto-Old Charnian, from which she had pieced together what was needed to finish the creation of the Unspeakable Word which had destroyed Charn for they would not bow to her, a passing reference had been made to this very book, as a holder of 'most ancient secrets and fell, and forbidden powers sufficient to overthrow the Worlds'.

Jadis was sure she had Aslan beaten. Her plans were ready. Her backup plans were ready. But, as on Old Charn, one never knew until the dice were tossed. She remembered the wild panic, and the despair in her sister's eyes when Jadis began speaking that Unspeakable Word. A little backup would be good.

Spells and chalks and days and times were arranged. She read more. There was the Emperor-Over-the-Sea with his incomprehensible Law, but also mentioned was Chaos. Fascinated, she read of beings who could cause utter insanity by a mere glance in the eyes. Beasts who died, but did not die. For some reason, she thought of Aslan at this point, but dismissed him as it was painful to her to remember her Great Enemy.

She read of Cthulhu and Nyarlthotep, of Hastur and Tsatthoggua. Fascinating, but ultimately disappointing they were. Many of them were bound to a specific World and Place and Time. Rhagorthua sounded potentially very destructive with his nuclear powers, but he was bound to New Mexico, whatever kingdom that was.

Not infrequently, they had been severely damaged like Great Cthulhu. Worse, they required rituals and efforts and sacrifices that were simply unavailable to her. If she had twenty years, and access to some placed called Kansas and one of the intriguingly named Cities of Gold, there were things she could do. Frustrated, she threw down the book.

It landed with a crack that spread from one side of the room to another with a snap, and a crackle, and a final pop. Worried Jadis looked about, studying the crack in the throne room that ran diagonally across it, almost expecting the roof to fall in. It was not wise to be disrespectful to such Powers, she reminded herself.

And then the book fluttered over a few more pages. She had only studied the first third of the book. What about the rest? She swooped in, and looked.

Xinthari, Lord? Of the Shattered Planet, Bringer of Waters, Haunter of the Ring of Stone was said to have an implacable hatred for the Children of Light. Jadis read further. He, or more precisely, it, or, what did that little squirming double-crossed 'y' shape mean anyways? Discarding that query, Jadis saw how he had broken a planet filled with life, and nearly annihilated another planet with water.

He had never been successfully summoned, to anyone's knowledge as anyone who had tried had gone screaming mad, or exploded so that one's interior parts decorated the walls of the sanctum. So, he had no injuries, and except for being barred from Earth by some unknown force, he was whole.

Well, where other lesser magi had failed, Jadis, the White Witch, would succeed. And then let Aslan try conclusions with her. For she well knew that her kind were, in many worlds, called the Children of Darkness, and Aslan's People were the Children of Light.


	2. Chapter 2

Days went by that would have whitened Jadis' hair if it were not already white. She studied ancient texts for the precise meanings of words, and scoured her library of spells for one that she barely remembered. As she continued, she began to see out of the corner of her eyes, other eyes. Things hardly human, and not remotely human either whimpered in shadows near her, or stared austerely from some place beyond the Known Multiverse. A mere Human would have broken, gone teeth chatteringly, babbling insane to an early grave, but Jadis was Charnian, of giant blood. She was made of sturdier, stronger stuff that a weak Human.

But the obsession still had caught her, for which Maugrim was glad as somehow he had lost the old Centaur couple in the deep woods. With a shriek that pained his sensitive ears, he heard the White Queen curse out in triumph.

"I have you now, Cat!" Maugrim was not sure she had, for he had always found cats to be frustratingly, tauntingly too clever at escaping traps for their own good.

Jadis stood tall in the midst of her throne room. The golden throne was tossed off to the side. An ominous crack zig-zagged across the floor from one corner to another. Burnt spices with pungent odors made Maugrim's nose twitch. He kept going in, not sure why. His queen looked rather the worse for the wear. Her white gown, with gold threads was blackened by smoke, and spotted with tiny holes, and reeked of odors that he could not understand, but set him to whining in the back of his throat.

 _Bad. Run away. Flee._

Maugrim was a sadistic and evil monster, but even he wanted no part of what he smelled in that room. The White Witch turned to him, and her eyes were as blood, with a febrile smile on her face.

"Come, Maugrim." She cooed, and he said "No." which meant death, but he feared what was taking shape between her outstretched hands more than death by axe. But he did not say "No." He did not stop walking toward her, and he did not run howling away. Instead, stiff-legged and filled with horror, he walked up to her, and sat before her as if he were nought but a tame dog.

"There, there, Maugrim, this will not hurt much." And she brought her hands down to his chest, just above his heart. Then she shoved her hands through his skin, and ribs. She lied. It was agony. Maugrim tried to howl, but the pain was such that it locked his throat.

Jadis smiled in delight as the wound in her Chief's chest evaporated, for lack of a better term. The blood on her fingers stung like a strong acid, but a quick rinse in water in a bowl dealt with that. Granted, the water was now black and rose, but it felt like water.

Looking back, she saw a new awareness in her Chief's eyes. Her spells chaining him had forced Maugrim to the place of unwilling sacrifice, and now they would hold this Xinthari to her will as he had her wolf's body.

Xinthari said nothing, but stared as if through the walls. His shadow stretched beyond him, to the wall, and leaking through it. Studying him, she saw he was much bigger than before, and yet at the same time, smaller. He looked to the right first, and the to left before that, but she saw it afterwards. She shook her head. What was happening to her?

"Who summoned me?" Xinthari asked. He was not speaking directly to her, but seemed to be tossing the question out generally. Perhaps all of Narnia heard that low-voiced question.

"I did. I am Jadis, the Ruler of Narnia by right of conquest and power. Lord Xinthari, welcome, I wish to give you a child of light to do your vengeance on."

"This place, like Earth, but not. Lord means 'he'."

Xinthari's tongue reached out, licked his ears, and halfway down his back. Bulges, growing muscles perhaps, expanded under his fur-covered sides. His tongue came back barbed, short, long, black, and blazing with fire, and all at once, and none at once. And he never licked his back. Jadis stumbled, drawing upon her inner reserves to cast a spell to block out these illusions.

It did nothing.

"Lady Xinthari, my apologies, I guess the old …."

"Lady means 'she'. I am neither."

"Then...'it'?" Jadis suggested delicately, getting used to the manifestations of madness by simply not fighting them.

"I do have a gender, but your mind cannot comprehend it."

"That does not make sense." Jadis snapped, feeling insulted.

"True. Sense is a confinement. I am unconfined."

Jadis struggled to make sense of this statement even as she watched Xinthari eat its own skull with its paws. Finally, she gave up, and returned to her point.

"There are Children of Light. I wish you to destroy them."

"Gladly." Xinthari said.

"I give you of my kingdom a Child of Light. Destroy me one, and let me see, and if I like it, we will have a deal."

"Accepted."

Xinthari opened its mouth, and majesty of madness peered out of it. And Jadis leapt back.

"Not me. I am a Child of Darkness." She screamed, putting her hand to her wand.

"No." Xinthari paused.

"Aslan." Xinthari said.

"Yes, kill Aslan." Jadis screamed. After what mind-shattering power she had seen, a power that could snuff out stars, she was convinced that Xinthari could kill the Great Lion.

Then Xinthari put its paws together, and laid its head down as if kneeling. Wondering, and greatly afraid, Jadis turned to her right, and saw Aslan standing in the doorway of her throne room. He looked sad.

"Jadis." He said.  
"Aslan." She snapped back. "You have no right to be here."  
"If that were so, I would not be here. You have tampered with things beyond your ken, Jadis. Even you should not have done this."  
"He will destroy you. He is my beast, and I have given him an order, and he has agreed to it. He will kill a Child of Light."  
Aslan walked into the room slowly and up to Xinthari who stayed crouched.  
"Is this so, Xinthari?"  
"Yes, Great Lord. The Witch has promised me one."  
"Yes, so he kills you, or you let one of your precious Narnians die." The witch cackled. She was greatly surprised to see Xinthari kneeling to the Lion, but as said before, she was made of tougher stuff than Human. It took a great deal to stop her, and even then it was not for long.

"Jadis, for your own sake, release Xinthari." Aslan turned to her. He seemed to plead.

She laughed him to scorn.

"Jadis, Xinthar is not 'he'. Xinthari is …." A few syllabbles passed through Aslan's throat, but none stayed in Jadis' ear. Ignoring that, she commanded Xinthari to rise. Aslan spoke again.

"Xinthari, this is not the Rising of the Water at the Last Door. The space-time coordinates are gebraviani doe))_ . The others are under my paw."

"I will never be under your paw." The Witch spat out.

"You won't, but a different you will be." The Lion said, and nodded to Xinthari who arose eagerly, and began padding to Jadis. His claws sounded like distant thunder, and the floor rippled under his paws.

"Child of Light. Hated, so hated." And he lunged and took one of Jadis' fingers.

"I'm Dark." Jadis wailed and thumped him with her stone-making wand which turned him to stone, and to fire, and had no effect, and destroyed the universe with fifty yards, and sprouted roses.

"You are born of Light. Time's arrow runs only forward for you. You cannot be and not-be at once, let alone, a thousand differences at once. The speed of light is _c,_ not whatever else it might be. The Primeval Dark is everything that could possibly be, and not be, save the Infinite. And the Pattern of Light is only one of many Patterns." The words came even as Jadis became unexisted.

" Why do I have to put up with this boring staleness?" Xinthari wailed to Aslan.

"Be at peace, Xinthari. I have My reasons. Now give me but one variant of the Queen to put here that did not receive the book. For I still have need of her, here in Narnia."

"As you wish, Great Lord."

==========================

Maugrim left to go track the old Centaurs while a trembling dwarf told his Queen that they had found nothing of interest in the mines below in the last week. Soon enough, this version of the Queen felt Aslan's paw on her chest as has been written by Jack. And out in the Primeval Dark, in Chaos, a trillion million patterns swirled and unswirled except for that boring part of the Multiverse where a single Pattern, that of Light, and Order, and Time ruled, and the loyal Old Gods played before Aslan's Throne.


End file.
